Category: talk

Hey Jen! How about another random fact about Ed? Miss the good old days.😉

Hello! So do I. 🙂

Here’s a random fact about Ed: Every time he writes a song and gives it to another artist to record, he makes sure he is on the recording somewhere. So when you’re listening to certain songs released by other musicians, you can often hear Ed doing backing vocals or playing guitar and you might not even realize it!

My favorite instance of this is on Strip That Down, which Ed wrote for Liam Payne. In it, the weirdly low voice that goes, “Strip that down, girl, love when you hit the ground,” is actually Ed Sheeran’s voice distorted. You can listen here at about the 1:20 mark:

I know a lot of fans already know it’s Ed’s voice on this track, but it still makes me laugh just about every time I hear it, so I like to point it out whenever I can. 🙂

A much more subtle example – one that’s actually pretty hard to hear – is the song Ed wrote for Hilary Duff. It’s called Tattoo, and he does backing vocals. This is one of my favorite songs that Ed has given to another artist, with one of my favorite lyrics he’s written: “I’m burning like the wire in lightbulbs.” I really wish he’d kept this one for himself, but Hilary does do a great job with it. This is what she told MTV News about working with Ed:

Sheeran did all the background vocals on the song after waking her up in the middle of the night to record the track. “He vocally produced it and came in the booth with me,” she recalled. “I was really intimidated because, normally, they don’t do that, so I kept looking up and being like, ‘You’re Ed Sheeran and I’m singing the song that you wrote and I want to do right by it.’”

“It was awesome and then he, in like 15 minutes, did all the low stuff and the harmonies and the background,” she continued. “He just musically has to put in no effort it seems; it’s just him.”

hey huge fan of your blog but I was wondering if you could link me to some of your favorite ed performances? (:

Hello! I’m glad you like the blog. 🙂

I get questions like this all the time, where people want me to link my favorite performances or the best performances, and it’s such a hard question to me because I really think Ed gives it his best every single time he performs, so you’ll almost never see a video of him performing that isn’t good or doesn’t measure up to all the other ones, you know? So, since all the performances are just as great as each other, my favorites are always going to be based on kind of silly things, like… well, like what he was wearing, or how his hair looked, or which song he threw in a piece of, or the way he smiled and tilted his head. I feel kind of stupid going, “This is my favorite because look at what his foot does!” or something like that, haha, but I also feel kind of lame going, “I don’t have a favorite because they’re all great!” which is really how I feel.

So um. Okay, I’ll list a few videos I like, but this is in no way a complete list, and it’s based on completely arbitrary things, and if someone asked me the same thing again tomorrow, I would probably have a completely different answer. Basically, here are some random Ed performances that I like:

[Fulham Broadway] – I love this song, and I think this is the only youtube video there is of him performing it.

[YNMIDNY] – I like this one because he puts in Everybody in the Club Gettin’ Tipsy from 4:39 to 5:02, and he just looks so proud of it. xD

[In the Blue Room] – This one is so funny to me because he puts in Hiphoppopotamus and Rhymenoceros from Flight of the Conchords at around 4:43, and that’s one of my favorite things ever.

[All My Life] – Okay, don’t make fun of me, but even though I love Ed’s version of this song, the real reasons I like this video so much are as follows: The way he tilts his head back and forth when he sings “Evian” at 1:48 and “here” at 2:19, and his expression when he closes his eyes to sing the “say what, say what” part at about 3:30.

[Feeling Good] – This is sexy. I just watched it twice and shivered both times, no lie. Leave me alone.

[YNMIDNY at Glastonbury] – I love this because he looks like he’s having so much fun! Also it’s got Pass Out in it, which I like a lot. And a cameo from Murray. And… I don’t think Ed is wearing shoes?

[YNMIDNY at KDWB’s Jingle Ball] – The tongue roll thing at 10:08. This is also the video I practiced with to finally learn all the words to the extended version of this song.

Um, I’m going to stop here before I end up linking all of Ed’s youtube videos. If there are any videos here that you haven’t seen yet, drop everything and watch them now! And if you want to watch some other good Ed Sheeran performances, I recommend just going to youtube and clicking on stuff with his name in it, because… I mean, you won’t find something you don’t like. 🙂

How many bro tats does Ed have and who are they with and what are they please?

Oh, this is a good question! He has a lot of them, so let me think… I might accidentally leave some out.

Ed got a little star on his elbow with his cousin Jethro (Alonestar), and Jethro got a plus on his chest for Ed:

Ed got Pingu with Harry Styles while Harry got the word Pingu:

Ed and Phoebe Dykstra traded “meow” and a pawprint:

Ed and Jovel both got the Random Impulse logo:

Ed and John Mayer drew these “kool guy” and cat tattoos for each other:

Ed and the members of Rixton got “Ladz on tour” tattoos together:

Ed and Foy Vance got the words to Guiding Light in each other’s handwriting:

Johnny McDaid has the same Guiding Light lyrics (I read somewhere that the song was actually written about Johnny’s father) and he drew Ed’s family tree tattoo:

Ed and Jordan and Harley from Rizzle Kicks got Fresh Prince tattoos together. Jordan got Fresh, Ed got Prince, and Harley got “on the playground is where I spent most of my days”:

Ed got puzzle pieces tattooed in a chain around his left arm, and a bunch of his friends got corresponding puzzle piece tattoos, including Stuart. Here’s Stuart showing his, which you can just barely make out as a smudge at the top of his arm because it’s a terrible quality photo:

Ed also has some other tattoos that represent some of his friends or experiences he’s had with his friends, but I’m not sure if they have corresponding tattoos or not, so I don’t know if they count as official bro tats. And of course several of Ed’s friends got plus sign tattoos when + was released, so I suppose those are bro tats?

Anyway, these are the ones that I thought of right off the top of my head. If you can think of more, remind me and I’ll add them! 🙂

My theme for the song is when you have a sort of first relationship or second relationship and you’re young and that relationship ends – you’re so bitter about it and so angry. I feel like you get to 24 or 25, maybe younger if you’re a bit more mature, and you look at your exes in relationships and you’re just like ‘She actually looks a lot happier than when she was with me.‘ But I remember the first girl I was with – that the first and most of the second album were about – I was with from school, and I remember the guy she was with, meeting him one day and being like, ‘He’s so much more suited to her than I ever was.’ And seeing them together, we never looked like that. We were never that sort of couple, never that happy.

Hi there – Fran here. Ed Sheeran is hosting an intimate charity concert (only 400 people) for the London Irish Centre Charity in London on June 19th and fans have the chance to win tickets by donating just £10 pounds they will be entered in a draw. The draw close on March 31st. It's a great opportunity for super fans to win tickets to what is going to be a great show. More info is on Ed Sheeran's Instagram page (scroll down to St Patrick's Day video) – please can you post this? Thank you

Hi Jen, Big fan of the blog although I guess i'm not a typical Ed Sheeran fan as a 37 year old bloke. I'm hoping you can help me find a version of YNMIDNY I used to have, it's acoustic, similar to the Bing Lounge version, but starts with him saying something like 'when I first started this song was only 2 minutes long, it was absolutely sh*t'. I remember it being amazing. Thanks in advance.

Hi! I’m sorry I’ve taken so long to get to your question. First let me just say, lots of guys like Ed’s music, and lots of people in their thirties do too, so I hope you don’t feel out of place here or anything like that. You’re in good company. Everyone here has excellent taste in music. 🙂

I tried to find the version of YNMIDNY that you’re talking about, and I sort of got sucked down into a big Youtube black hole. I didn’t find one with that quote, but do you think it could have been [this]? At the beginning, he says he used to play without a tuner and it sounded terrible… But you’re probably thinking of a different one because I think I remember which one you’re talking about and it wasn’t the live room. But I do think this is an excellent version anyway.

Here’s the one I personally used when I finally sat myself down and made myself learn all the lyrics to the extended version. I had a concert the next day and I didn’t want to be there not knowing all the words like I had before. xD And this was the version he was performing in the US at the time:

Gosh. There’s so many really fun live versions of YNMIDNY, aren’t there? I rewatched a lot of old gems looking for the version you mentioned, and I got all nostalgic. Look at this one where he begins with the black cab part from the You Need Me EP and actually sings more than he raps:

Also I love this version with Pass Out in it. How happy is Ed here? Performing with no shoes! And he brings Murray up on stage. I would have loved to be there for this performance!

And in case there’s someone who hasn’t seen it yet, here’s the livestream Ed did a few years ago to explain the evolution of YNMIDNY, and then he performs the version he put out on the One Take EP. It’s in two parts and definitely worth the watch if you like the song!

I’m sorry I couldn’t help you find the exact version you were looking for, but thanks for inspiring me to look up these old videos again! I hope if someone else knows which version you mentioned then they’ll leave a comment or send a message.

I also have your other question here, which I think is just a fascinating discussion to have, but I’m going to think on it a little more before I answer. 🙂

Hey Jen! How about another random fact about Ed? Miss the good old days.😉

Hello! So do I. 🙂

Here’s a random fact about Ed: Every time he writes a song and gives it to another artist to record, he makes sure he is on the recording somewhere. So when you’re listening to certain songs released by other musicians, you can often hear Ed doing backing vocals or playing guitar and you might not even realize it!

My favorite instance of this is on Strip That Down, which Ed wrote for Liam Payne. In it, the weirdly low voice that goes, “Strip that down, girl, love when you hit the ground,” is actually Ed Sheeran’s voice distorted. You can listen here at about the 1:20 mark:

I know a lot of fans already know it’s Ed’s voice on this track, but it still makes me laugh just about every time I hear it, so I like to point it out whenever I can. 🙂

A much more subtle example – one that’s actually pretty hard to hear – is the song Ed wrote for Hilary Duff. It’s called Tattoo, and he does backing vocals. This is one of my favorite songs that Ed has given to another artist, with one of my favorite lyrics he’s written: “I’m burning like the wire in lightbulbs.” I really wish he’d kept this one for himself, but Hilary does do a great job with it. This is what she told MTV News about working with Ed:

Sheeran did all the background vocals on the song after waking her up in the middle of the night to record the track. “He vocally produced it and came in the booth with me,” she recalled. “I was really intimidated because, normally, they don’t do that, so I kept looking up and being like, ‘You’re Ed Sheeran and I’m singing the song that you wrote and I want to do right by it.’”

“It was awesome and then he, in like 15 minutes, did all the low stuff and the harmonies and the background,” she continued. “He just musically has to put in no effort it seems; it’s just him.”